Balancing oxidative protein folding: the influences of reducing pathways on disulfide bond formation

Oxidative protein folding is confined to few compartments, including the endoplasmic reticulum, the mitochondrial intermembrane space and the bacterial periplasm. Conversely, in compartments in which proteins are translated such as the cytosol, the mitochondrial matrix and the chloroplast stroma proteins are kept reduced by the thioredoxin and glutaredoxin systems that functionally overlap. The highly reducing NADPH pool thereby serves as electron donor that enables glutathione reductase and thioredoxin reductase to keep glutathione pools and thioredoxins in their reduced redox state, respectively. Notably, also compartments containing oxidizing machineries are linked to these reducing pathways. Reducing pathways aid in proofreading of disulfide bond formation by isomerization or they provide reducing equivalents for the reduction of disulfides prior to degradation. In addition, they contribute to the thiol-dependent regulation of protein activities, and they help to counteract oxidative stress. The existence of oxidizing and reducing pathways in the same compartment poses a potential problem as the cell has to avoid futile cycles of oxidation and subsequent reduction reactions. Thus, compartments that contain oxidizing machineries have developed sophisticated ways to spatiotemporally balance and regulate oxidation and reduction. In this review, we discuss oxidizing and reducing pathways in the endoplasmic reticulum, the periplasm and the mitochondrial intermembrane space and highlight the role of glutathione especially in the endoplasmic reticulum and the intermembrane space. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Thiol-Based Redox Processes.